declared war on 27 August 1916 it could deploy only 50 battalions consisting of 1,058 officers and 33,302 riflemen who could rely on the support of 86 cannons and 10 squadrons . Meanwhile, the German emperor and the Bulgarian tsar agreed to place all Central Powers forces in northern Bulgaria under the command of Field Marshal August von Mackensen, who at the time was commanding an army group on the Macedonian front. The appointment received the sanction of the Bulgarian commander-in-chief, General Zhekov, on 28 August and two days later the headquarters of Army Group Mackensen were established in Veliko Turnovo. The field marshal's forces consisted in their greater part of the Bulgarian Third Army which had the following composition on 31 August: With Bulgarian resources stretched almost to their limits from Macedonia to Romania and German reserves now absorbed by the formation of the Ninth Army the Ottoman Empire alone could spare some additional troops for the strengthening of the Bulgarian Third Army. Thus in August the two infantry divisions (15th and 25th) of the VI Army Corps, with their 18 infantry battalions, 8 batteries (32 cannons) and 8 machine guns were given to Field Marshal Mackensen and prepared to be transported to Dobrudja. In order to encourage Romania's entry into the war on 26 August Italy declared war on Germany and a day later Romania itself declared war but only on Austria-Hungary. The German Empire immediately answered with a war declaration and urged Bulgaria to do the same. The Bulgarian government however delayed its response and caused a great deal of concern in its allied high commands. The Austrians and Germans even initiated some small skirmishes with the Romanians along the Danube in order to compromise Bulgaria's neutrality but after Bulgarian protests they were discontinued. Finally, on 1 September, Tsar Ferdinand issued a special decree declaring war on Romania. On the same day Bulgarian forces prepared to cross the border and Field Marshal Mackensen received a telegram from the new Chief of the German General Staff von Hindenburg informing him that German and Austro-Hungarian build up in Transylvania would be completed no sooner than the second half of September while the forces that were already deployed would be able only to defend against the advancing Romanians until then. Von Hindenburg and General Zhekov confirmed the orders of the Bulgarian Third Army to advance into Dobrudja in order to